Book 6
6
All the foregoing disorders arise within the body; but a blow from without at times so inures the eye that it is suffused with blood. Nothing is then better than to anoint the eyeball with the blood of a pigeon, dove, or swallow. There is some reason for this, because the vision of these birds, when indicate from without, returns after an interval to its original state, most speedily in the case of the swallow. This also has given rise to the fable that the old birds restore the vision by a herb, when it really returns spontaneously. Hence the blood of these birds most properly protects our eyes too after an external injury, and in the following order: swallows' blood is best, next that of the pigeon, and the dove's is the least efficacious, both as regards the birds themselves and us. In order to relieve inflammation, it is not unfitting to apply a poultice over the injured eye. The best salt from Ammon, or some other salt, is pounded, and oil gradually added until it is of the consistency of strigil scrapings. Then this is mixed with barley-meal which has been boiled in honey wine. But it is easy, after looking through all that medical practitioners have written, for anyone to see that there is scarcely any one of the eye disorders among those included above which it may not be possible to clear up by simple and readily procured remedies.
